Chapter 270: Tonight We Get Stronger
Damon called all the girls into his room.
They gathered around the table, their expressions curious.
Ariel sat closest to him.
Mio and Mia flanked her.
Seraphina stood by the window.
Flare leaned against the wall with her arms crossed.
Alena settled on the bed.
Lumina lingered near the door.
Damon waited until everyone was quiet.
"I need to explain something," he said.
He looked at each of them.
"The rules are simple. But the power level this year is different from the previous tournament."
He paused.
"The Crimson Eclipse Sect has seven King Spirit Realm fighters. That’s not counting their reserves."
Ariel’s eyes widened.
"Seven?"
"Seven," Damon confirmed. "And I don’t know about the other sects. This year’s power level is completely different from what we expected."
He let that sink in.
"Which means we need to adapt," Damon said, his voice carrying the quiet certainty of someone who had already made peace with the path ahead.
His golden eyes moved deliberately across the table and settled on Ariel.
She felt the weight of that gaze the instant it landed. She had learned to read him well enough by now — the steady set of his jaw, the calm that lived behind those luminous eyes even when he was issuing the most impossible of declarations.
She understood him.
She nodded once, softly, and then reached for the silk lapels of her robes and began to undress.
The room went utterly still.
Confusion moved through the remaining girls like a cold current beneath still water.
Each face wore a different flavour of it.
Mio blinked, her cheerful expression faltering as her bright purple eyes darted between Ariel and Damon, clearly trying to locate the logic she had missed.
Mia tilted her head a fraction to the side, her quiet, observant gaze sharpening as she silently processed the scene with the careful patience of someone who preferred to understand before she spoke.
And Seraphina, ever composed, raised a single elegant brow, her emerald eyes cooling into that particular look she wore when a situation had moved outside the boundaries of her expectations.
Flare’s arms remained crossed but her expression shifted. Alena’s mouth opened slightly. Lumina just stared.
Damon began to explain.
"Since the power level is stronger, all we can do is get stronger."
He said it simply.
Like it was obvious.
"Every advantage matters. Every technique matters. Every level matters."
The girls began to understand.
Mio was the first to follow Ariel’s lead.
She pulled her robes off and let them fall to the floor. Mia followed a moment later, her movements fluid and deliberate.
Seraphina hesitated for half a breath, then she too began to undress.
Alena’s hands moved to her own robe, her cheeks flushing but her resolve steady.
But Flare stayed still.
Her arms were still crossed. Her jaw was tight. Her eyes burned with that familiar pride.
She hadn’t given herself to Damon yet.
Not fully.
Not completely.
And she wasn’t about to pretend otherwise.
Lumina stood frozen near the door, her face pale with shock.
Her hands were clenched at her sides.
Her breathing was shallow.
Damon saw both of them.
He understood.
He approached Lumina first.
She flinched when he got close, but she didn’t step back. Her eyes were wide, uncertain, caught between fear and something else.
Damon reached up and placed his palm against her forehead.
She stiffened.
Then he tapped his forehead against hers.
The Yin-Yang Harem Scripture flowed through the contact.
Knowledge poured into her mind like water filling a dry riverbed.
The principles of dual cultivation.
The method of cycling yin and yang qi between partners.
The way to absorb and refine his essence to strengthen her own foundation.
Lumina’s eyes widened as understanding dawned.
She saw it now.
She saw how the girls got stronger faster than everyone else.
She saw the technique that made it possible.
She looked at Damon with new eyes.
"You have this technique," she whispered.
"I do," Damon said.
"And you’re sharing it with me."
"Of course."
Lumina’s lips parted.
Her gaze softened.
Then she reached for her own robes.
She pulled them off slowly, deliberately, letting them fall to the floor beside the others.
Now only Flare remained, standing apart from the others with her arms crossed and her vibrant flame-red hair falling loose around her shoulders, every line of her tall, athletic body radiating a tightly coiled resistance that was almost tangible in the warm air of the room.
Damon turned to her.
She met his gaze without flinching, those sharp, predatory orange eyes locking onto his with a heat that had nothing to do with cultivation.
There was fire in them, raw and unyielding, the same fierce pride that had defined her long before she had ever known his name.
"I haven’t given myself to you," she said, her voice low and even, each word carefully placed like stones in a wall she was still trying to build between them.
"I know," Damon replied.
"I’m not one of your women."
"I know that too."
Her jaw tightened, the proud line of her chin lifting just slightly higher, as though bracing against something she couldn’t quite name.
"Then why are you looking at me like that?"
Damon stepped closer.
"Because I’m not asking you to be one of my women," he said.
"I’m asking you to If you want to get stronger."
Flare’s eyes flickered.
"The tournament is dangerous. The Eclipse Cult is dangerous. If you go in there without every advantage you can get, you might not come out."
He paused.
"I don’t want to lose you."
Flare’s pride warred with something else.
Something softer.
Something she didn’t want to admit.
She looked at the other girls, all of them naked, all of them waiting, all of them stronger than they had been a week ago.
She looked at Ariel, who had started this path and had grown more than anyone.
She looked at Lumina, who had just joined and was already undressing.
Then she looked back at Damon.
Her hands dropped to her sides.
Her fingers found the ties of her robes.
She pulled them open.
The fabric slid off her shoulders and pooled at her feet.
She stood there, naked, proud, her chin lifted, her eyes burning.
"Don’t make me regret this," she said.
Damon smiled.
"I won’t."
He stepped back and looked at all of them.
"Tonight," he said, "we get stronger."
Ariel stepped forward first.
Her hand found his chest.
Her lips found his.
And the night began.
